Laura Mulvey analyzed how mainstream films appeal to the "male gaze" through the representation of women as passive objects for the male spectator to look at and desire. She argued that films encourage identification with active male protagonists and voyeuristic or fetishistic viewing of female characters. This reinforces patriarchal notions of masculinity and femininity for the benefit of the presumed male audience.

1. Laura Mulvey
Feminist Film Theory and
‘The Male Gaze’

2. Pleasurable Spectatorship
• Laura Mulvey analysed the way mainstream
films ‘construct an ideal viewer’.
• i.e. she analysed the way men and women were
represented in films, and speculated about how
this would appeal to a spectator.
• She mixed psychoanalytic film theory (the ideas
of Freud and Lacan) for a ‘politically feminist’
end.
• She said that ‘spectatorship’ and the act of
looking itself provided a form of sexual
gratification

3. Scopophilia and Voyeurism
• Scopophilia = Freud’s phrase for when
we get (sexual pleasure) from looking
at other people;
• but Mulvey also noted that Freud said
people feel guilty when getting
pleasure in this way.

4. • Mulvey suggested that cinema was the ideal
place to get ‘scopophilic’ pleasure because
a.) the people in the film aren’t aware the spectator
is watching (so can’t be made to feel guilty)
b.) no-one else can see the spectator getting
pleasure because the theatre is in darkness,
plus everyone else is watching the screen, too
Mulvey said the cinema provides voyeuristic
pleasure: pleasure achieved through watching
others who don’t know they’re being observed

5. Lacan…
• Jacques Lacan was a psychoanalyst who
expanded and developed Freudian ideas.
• One idea useful for understanding why
audiences like films (and other media) = the
‘mirror stage’
• Lacan said this is a stage in child’s development
where they recognise themselves in other
people with similar features.
• Child develops sense of ‘self’ and ‘Other’ that
influence it’s thinking for the rest of its life.

6. Mulvey related to Lacan:
• Mulvey used Lacan’s idea about the
importance of seeing your self ‘visually
reflected’ to explain why people like films.
• When we see a character on the screen like
us, we identify with it – and this helps
reinforce our sense of self.

7. Mulvey’s Conclusions
• Most mainstream films are made by male
filmmakers for male spectators
• This results in ACTIVE male characters (they
are the protagonists i.e. a subject whose actions
push the narrative forward; so the audience are
encouraged to identify with them)
• Female characters are usually passive (they are
often seen as a ‘prize’, an object of desire that
men fight over; don’t act or think for themselves)

8. How do these appeal to the (male)
spectator?
• Mulvey said that mainstream films appeal to the
‘Male Gaze’;
• Women are presented as ‘spectacle’ –
something pleasurable for the male spectator to
look at;
• In her own words, popular films “are obsessively
subordinated to the neurotic needs of the male
ego”.

9. Narcissistic identification
• Narcissus was a figure in Greek
mythology, a boy who was so attractive he
fell in love with his own reflection
• Narcissism = loving your own image
• Narcissistic identification = male spectator
sees male hero on screen and gets
pleasure by both feeling similar to the hero
(he’s a man, too, so the screen is like a
mirror) and admiring/loving the idealised
image of masculinity
• E.g. James Bond – personification of what men wish they
were; get pleasure from admiring him and identifying with
him, because they aren’t like him in real life.

10. Voyeuristic Objectification
• Voyeuristic objectification = when the male spectator
gets pleasure by desiring the female character, and
feeling he owns her because she is passive (like an
object) and because he can look at her with out guilt
(because she doesn’t know she is being watched)
Fetishisation
• Mulvey also noted that sometimes there were active
female characters, especially those portrayed by a
female star.
• However, she said that these weren’t characters that
were presented for the female spectator to identify with..
• … instead their power seemed to be based around their
beauty.

11. …
• She said that female beauty was fetishised
• A fetish (in her terms) is when a source of fear
becomes a source of pleasure.
• Humans don’t like feeling scared and anxious –
so, psychologically, they sometimes turn a
source of fear into something that gives pleasure
• So… a male spectator, made anxious by a
female characters empowered actions, can turn
her into a source of visual pleasure by
concentrating on her beauty and sexiness. (i.e.
fetishised or sexualised)

12. • One main problem is that she didn’t do any
audience research, she based all her ideas on
her own (psychoanalytic) analysis of films.
• She disregarded a female audience
• She didn’t consider a homosexual spectators
• This theory was made in the 1980s so therefore
it is outdate. Modern videos now show more
female empowerment and homosexuality